How can i retreive mesages which were deletd on my tablet and have now gone from my pc inbox.

Question

I have deleted 12 messages from my tablet device. I did not realise they would delete from my pc. They are not in the inbox or trash on either device. How can I retrieve these messages and conform my settings so I can delete on my tablet and they will stay on my pc in future ? Thank you. David

Answer 1

As you are viewing by pc and a tablet, I assume you are using IMAP mail account on both.
IMAP mail accounts get a remote view of folders and emails that are held on the server.
So, regardless of whether you view via webmail using a browser or via IMAP on pc or tablet using Thunderbird or other email client, you are remotely viewing the same folder.
IMAP mail accounts can see any subscribed folder and emails therein. Ususally, only the headers are downloaded and when you select to read an email, a copy is downloaded to a temporary folder to facilitate quicker access. You can also choose to synchronise subscribed folders, in which case a copy of the folder is downloaded to Thunderbird mail account in your Profile folder. This means you can view emails even if you are in offline mode. However, synchronised folders do get updated on a regular basis, so that any changes you make are relected on the server and any changes on the server are updated in Thunderbird.
What does this mean?
When you deleted an email using the tablet, the server was updated to show this deletion. Then when you accessed using Thunderbird, the server updated Thunderbird to show what was on the server. Therefore, if you delete an email using any access method, you are deleting from the same folder.
If you get emails that you want to keep, you need to either move or put a copy into a suitable folder in the Local Folders account. These emails are stored on your computer and are not influenced by the IMAP mail account. You can then choose to delete off the server knowing a copy is still in Local Folders.
The only way of getting these emails back is if the email is in the Trash folder and then you can move it back or use a backup.
Backup info:
Synchronise subscribed folders to get a copy of folders in your Thunderbird Profile folder on your pc.
Then go into 'offline' mode to stop further synchronising.
In offline mode you use a tool eg: MozBackup or manually backup the Profile folder. You could also just backup emails in either mbox or .eml files using the ImportExporttool..
Here is some helpful backup info:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP_backup
profile folder location:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird
mozBackup:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/MozBackup
* http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
ImportExporttool:
* https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/